Chip scale packages (CSP) are widely adopted for semiconductor chip assemblies in the industry because the component has a smaller size. A popular methodology of manufacturing a CSP component is a technology called surface mounting technology (SMT). The surface mounting technology is a method in which the semiconductor chip is mounted or placed directly on the surface of a printed circuit board (PCB). A semiconductor component made with SMT usually has either smaller bonding wires or no bonding wires at all.
The semiconductor component made with SMT is smaller in size and lower in electrical resistance. During manufacturing of the SMT semiconductor component, a ball grid array (BGA) is a type of packaging used for integrating the semiconductor chip and the printed circuit board. In BGA packaging, a number of solder balls are first disposed on either the pads of the semiconductor chip or the pads of the printed circuit board, and then the semiconductor chip and the circuit board are bonded through the solder balls.
By replacing the wires with the solder balls in the surface mounting component, the resistance and required package space are both reduced. However, similar to the bonding wires of the other packaging process, the reliability of the solder balls affects the manufacturing yield of the surface mounting technology. As such, improvements in the integrity and method for a solder ball to form in a surface mounting component continue to be sought.